Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Goshen College communication conference asks whether youth are
tuned out to the news, March 17

Conference: “Tuned Out? Youth and the
future of news media”Date and time: Friday, March 17, 2006 – 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.Location: Goshen College Church Fellowship HallCost: $7 for high school and
college students, $30 for teachers and media professionals, $15 for
senior citizensEvent sponsor: Goshen College
Communication DepartmentFor more information: Contact
Linda Rouch by calling (574) 535-7450 or e-mailinglindasr@goshen.eduWeb site:www.goshen.edu/communication/tunedout

GOSHEN, Ind. – Are youth tuned out to the news? If so, why?
And what would make them want to tune in?

The Goshen
College Communication Department is hosting the daylong conference, “Tuned Out? Youth and the future of news media,” on
March 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Goshen College Church
Fellowship Hall to focus on these questions and give high school
and college students, journalists, teachers and news media folks
the opportunity to explore the answers together.

Author David
Mindich, professor and chair of the journalism department at Saint
Michael’s College in Colchester, Vt., will give the keynote
address during the conference. He explores these questions in his
book “Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the
News” (Oxford University Press, 2005). Mindich interviewed
scores of young Americans about how they keep up with the news.
What he discovered was a group that knows less, cares less, votes
less and follows the news less than their parents do and less than
their parents did when they were young. The challenge, Mindich
says, is to create a society in which young people feel that
attending to quality journalism is worthwhile.

Before
teaching, Mindich worked as an assignment editor for CNN and earned
a doctorate in American Studies from New York University. He has
written articles for the “Wall Street Journal,”
New York Magazine” and other publications. He is also
the author of “Just the Facts: How ‘Objectivity’
Came to Define American Journalism.”

Brooke
Gladstone is co-host and managing editor of National Public
Radio’s “On the Media,” heard by nearly a million
listeners across the country each week. She will also be a guest
speaker during the conference, as well as giving the Yoder Public
Affairs Lecture the night before the conference, on March 16 at
7:30 p.m. in the Church-Chapel.

Gladstone
started out as a print reporter and editor in Washington and then
moved to radio in 1987 as senior editor of NPR’s
“Weekend Edition with Scott Simon” before becoming
senior editor at the network’s daily news magazine,
“All Things Considered.” She became NPR’s first
media reporter. After six years at that post, she moved to On
the Media,” produced at WNYC in New York. “On the
Media” received a Peabody Award in 2005 and can be heard
locally on WVPE 88.1 FM on Sundays at 6 p.m.

Cost for the conference
is $7 for high school and college students, $30 for teachers and
media professionals and $15 for senior citizens. For more
information or to register, visit www.goshen.edu/communication/tunedout,
or contact Linda Rouch by calling (574) 535-7450 or
e-mailinglindasr@goshen.edu
.

This conference is sponsored by the Goshen College Communication
Department with generous support from Elizabeth Miller Jeschke and
the Yoder Public Affairs Lecture Committee.

Editors: For more information about this
release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen
College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or
jodihb@goshen.edu.

###

Goshen College,
established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal
arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The
college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate
learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and
servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the
church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term
program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in
Barron’s Best Buys in Education, Colleges of
Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide”
and U.S.News & World Report’s
America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named
Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.